Omicron decimates health personnel in Serbia: 2,000 medical workers are on sick leave

Photo: Marko Jovanovic

This, the strongest so far wave of coronavirus has decimated the medical staff available for work both in the institutions in the Covid system, and where only non-Covid patients are treated. The Serbian Ministry of Health says that currently 2,000 health workers, 29 of whom are hospitalized while the rest are in isolation, are on sick leave due to contracting coronavirus, Novosti reports.

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Professor Dr. Vladimir Djukic, director of the Clinical Hospital Center (KBC) "Dr. Dragisa Misovic" says that in this hospital, out of the 64 nurses working in the surgery ward, as many as 22 are infected.

"A third of nurses are ill with Covid, but fortunately the symptoms are mild. On Monday, two doctors from this ward also reported sick," said Djukic.

This clinic left the Covid regime at the beginning of December, but now once again it cannot work at full capacity treating non-Covid patients.

"We still cannot work normally and at full capacity, because we lack a third of nurses in surgery only. Almost 90 nurses out of 700 at the level of the entire KBC have Covid. I hope that this week will bring improvement, and that many will return to work, so that we can be fully operational within the next 10-15 days," said Djukic.

It is now feared that since the school year has resumed, even though most students attend classes according to the combined model, there could be a new wave of infections. Coronavirus was confirmed in 15,046 people on Monday. Positivity in tests is not decreasing, which is confirmed by the latest cross-section, according to which one in two of the 30,988 tested people were positive. Pressure is also not decreasing on Covid clinics, while the number of hospitalized patients is growing.

Professor Dr. Radmilo Jankovic, Deputy Director of the University Medical Center Nis, confirmed that in recent days there has been an increase in the number of patients in the hospital, but said the situation is under control although about a hundred employees in this institution are infected.

"We got accustomed to having even up to 1,000 hospitalized people in Krusevac, the largest Covid center in central and southern Serbia. According to the latest report, we have 130 patients, which is far under the capacity," said Jankovic and added:

"Now younger people are getting infected, but it will be a problem when that flows towards the older population. Most of those hospitalized are quite old. These are patients with other diseases, patients with malignant diseases, surgical patients. It's obvious that Omicron gives milder clinical pictures, and we will see if we will have additional post-Covid consequences later. We have not yet reached the peak of the wave. I expect that the numbers will grow until mid-February and that we will have a calmer spring and summer."

(Telegraf.rs)